The Importance of Data Maintenance

A directory without good data is virtually worthless. Worse yet, bad data can cause real harm. Imagine a directory providing a white pages service that users consult to find contact information of friends and colleagues. If the information they retrieve is not accurate, they will soon stop using the service. Or imagine a directory providing authentication, authorization, and personalization services for a suite of e-commerce applications. The directory contains information specifying which users are allowed to access the applications and what their preferences are. If the information is not accurate, there is not much use in consulting the directory in the first place.

More serious consequences can result from inaccurate data as greater numbers of mission-critical applications use the directory. For example, consider an internal corporate directory used to control access to vital corporate resources. An employee's termination is supposed to be reflected in the directory and his access to resources instantly revoked . Failure to provide accuracy in this case can open your organization to sabotage by disgruntled ex- employees , corporate espionage, and the like.

Poor data maintenance can also lead to user distrust and dissatisfaction with the directory service. This dissatisfaction is especially likely if your directory contains information about users. Whereas users may be disappointed to find incorrect information about others in the directory, they can become downright angry if they find incorrect information about themselves .

The potential for dire consequences that can result from inaccurate data in the directory can be used to your advantage. The very fact that the consequences are bad should be sufficient motivation to keep the data up-to-date. Later in this chapter we show you how to use this motivation to improve the quality of your directory data by distributing the authority to update it. Ultimately, you may want to allow users to update their own entries for some kinds of information, or you may want to empower a small group of directory content administrators to maintain directory data.